The wide format UV-curable inkjet market is the smallest, yet the most competitive product segment within the wide format digital printing industry. The global market for wide format UV-curable inkjet printers and supplies is expected to grow from $1.42 billion in 2010 to $3.04 billion in 2015 for a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.4%.

“We’re finding that dozens of global and regional competitors in the wide format UV-curable inkjet hardware market are being drawn to this segment based on high production volumes and attractive hardware profit margins,” commented Tim Greene, Director of InfoTrends Wide Format Service.

A tremendous interest in UV-curable inkjet as a production technology comes from several key aspects of the technology that support print service providers (PSPs) in meeting customer needs:

Faster production speed and the elimination of “dry time”
Lower operating costs due to higher ink efficiency
Improved performance on a wide variety of media products including flexible media
Better environmental properties of UV-curable inkjet especially vs. solvent inkjet

The 2011 Wide Format UV-curable Inkjet & Supplies Market Forecast reveals that UV-curable technology is expected to play an important role in a recentralisation of the wide format digital graphics market. In the early stages, a key to success has been providing reliable technology that delivered high-quality print production.

InfoTrends’ research indicates the UV-curable market is moving to a new stage where the solutions that surround the printer are increasingly important. The tools that are available that enable automated production and meaningful operational metrics are going to become increasingly important as commercial printers and other “high-end” operators adopt wide format UV-curable printers. Wide format UV-curable printing system providers that understand this, and develop or partner to create solutions packages, will have the greatest selling opportunities.